A large force of monitors and
small fast craft accompanied the expedition. An observer thus describes
the heroic exploit:
The night was overcast and there was a drifting haze. Down the coast a
great searchlight swung its beam to and fro in the small wind and short
sea. From the Vindictive's bridge, as she headed in toward the mole,
there was scarcely a glimmer of light to be seen shoreward. Ahead as she
drove through the water rolled the smoke screen, her cloak of
invisibility, wrapped about her by small craft. This was the device of
Wing-Commander Brock, without which, acknowledged the Admiral in
command, the operation could not have been conducted. A northeast wind
moved the volume of it shoreward ahead of the ships. Beyond it was the
distant town, its defenders unsuspicious.
It was not until the Vindictive, with bluejackets and marines standing
ready for landing, was close upon the mole, that the wind lulled and
came away again from the southeast, sweeping back the smoke screen and
laying her bare to eyes that looked seaward, There was a moment
immediately afterward when it seemed to those on the ships as if the dim
harbor exploded into light. A star shell soared aloft, then a score of
star shells. Wavering beams of the searchlights swung around and settled
into a glare. A wild fire of gun flashes leaped against the sky; strings
of luminous green beads shot aloft, hung and sank.
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